Voss Gallery is proud to present “The Hood,” a solo exhibition of street art influenced paintings and sculptures by self-taught artist Gale Hart that boldly considers the conflicting desires of wanting to be seen while remaining in control of one’s identity.

The exhibition opens on Friday, November, 8, 6-10PM and runs through Saturday, November 30, 2019. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 12-6PM or by appointment. Voss Gallery programming is free and open to the public.

Known as Sacramento’s ‘Godmother of Contemporary Art,’ Hart has established an energetic 40-year career experimenting with new techniques and materials often incorporating sarcasm and humor in her work to exaggerate the absurd. Oversized spray paint cans are playfully marked to mimic a tagger’s touch. Face masks commonly worn by graffiti artists for anonymity are seemingly individualized as textured bronze and polished aluminum entities.

Modern technology has rendered human communication both instantaneous and irreversible; ephemeral and eternal. As digital personas come to define personal identities, the choice to conceal—or reveal—aspects of ourselves becomes an exercise in risk and reward. What measures must we take to express ourselves authentically, in a world which can either amplify our mark or else obscure and paint it over?

“[For my recent body of work] I’ve been thinking a lot about the irony of tagging. Taggers live in secrecy. They create a name or ‘moniker’ so that nobody in the larger public knows who they really are, yet they aspire to be seen and known by everyone.” –Gale Hart

GALE HART (b. Lansing, Michigan, 1956) is a self-taught artist based in Sacramento, CA. Her work primarily focuses on the political and social issues of contemporary life, to include the hypocrisy and injustices of this country. She has shown at Context Miami, FL; Context New York, NY; The Los Angeles Art Show, CA; and Art Aspen, CO; and exhibits nationally. Since 2012, Gale has received over five public art commissions for the city of Sacramento, CA and recently completed a major commission for the city of Elk Grove, CA.